PLYMOUTH — A young girl's screams for help echoed through her neighborhood in Terryville Thursday afternoon, bringing neighbors running out of their homes. The panicked girl led them to a frightening sight, they recalled Saturday.

The girl's 70-year-old grandmother struggled on the floor with a large dog attacking her.

Police identified the woman as Florence Rodrigue.

"There wasn't much I could do at that point. I wanted to help so badly. I was screaming at the dog to stop, get off, get away," said Kathy Wojcik, one of the neighbors who ran to help.

Wojcik and another neighbor attempted to approach the dog to get him off but Rodrigue pleaded with them not to, fearing the dog would attack them. The other neighbor ran home to get a handgun in case he needed to shoot the dog to save her.

Wojcik said her neighbor's decision to get his gun was not done lightly. He was not home Saturday evening. Wojcik said she did not know his name.

"He asked her permission first. He asked the question twice and she said, 'yes, yes, please do so,' because it was the only way from stopping the dog from attacking her," Wojcik said.

Wojcik stepped out of the home when his neighbor pulled the trigger, plugging her ears with her fingers.

"I'm an animal lover but he to do what he had to do," Wojcik said.

Another woman, who declined to give her name, said the dog was still alive when police arrived. Sgt. Randy Foster said officers shot the dog.

Rodrigue, of 17 Roosevelt St., remained hospitalized at Waterbury Hospital on Saturday. A nursing supervisor said her condition was stable.

Little could be learned Saturday about Rodrigue, who lived with her granddaughter, according to neighbors.

The family recently moved to the neighborhood, which includes mostly single-family homes and some multifamily homes.

Neighbors described the dog as a pit bull but the dog's breed was not available Saturday. Neighbors said the dog belonged to a family member who lived on the second floor. The dog's owner also was not available Saturday.

No one answered the door at Rodrigue's home.

Jeanie Burness' son, Zachy, 7, came home from Fisher Elementary School when police and ambulance were on the scene. He went outside to play but a neighbor brought him back home so he didn't see the victim being brought out of the home on a stretcher and into an ambulance.

"It was so awful, I can't believe it," Burness said. "I thought it was somebody having a heart attack. It didn't register that it was this. I didn't know what had happened."

" Once pit bulls attack you with their powerful jaws, they don't let go until your dead. How many more people will be severely injured before something is done to stop people from owning these breeds and mixed breeds of pit bulls! "

" Shooting the dog saved the woman's life. Let's hope the good deed doesn't have to be paid for by the actions of radical animal rights groups like PETA, who put more value on the life of an attacking animal than the attacked human. Or that the gun control nuts won't put this person through hell for protecting another human being by the most practical means possible. "

" way too vague. what does the kid coming home from school and being sheltered from seeing the person come out on a stretcher have to do with the story????. He has to learn about life sometime, let the kid see the reality.

and Saints - that is STUPID ..when are we going to have responsible owners "

" @ clafontaine: owners will never be responsible enough to protect the public from animals of this nature, just ask the lady who had her face eaten off by a chimpanzee with a "responsible" owner for many years. We can't rely on the responsible nature of individuals when it comes to public safety, a good example of this are the new gun laws in ct. Being responsible does not enter into the equation with particular weapons and more than 10 bullets, neither should it be so with owners of particular animals capable of severely or fatally injuring others. "

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